Consumers in the marketplace are often searching for gifts for others, particularly around holidays or in anticipation of a person's birthday. Finding and buying the right gift for a particular recipient can be troublesome, especially around certain holidays, such as Christmas, Chanukah, etc., when many people are shopping for many recipients.
In an attempt to make the gift shopping experience more pleasant, several websites have implemented various strategies to assist the shopper. For example, amazon.com uses “shopping lists” and “wish lists” to organize gift ideas. The lists can be shared with others or searched by others to assist gift-givers in finding good gift ideas around birthdays, holidays, etc. Other websites employ similar wish list or gift list approaches, such as thethingsiwant.com, wishlistr.com, whimventory, wishlisttracker, etc. Some websites also offer a mobile application to accomplish the same objectives.
Other websites provide a gift registry whereby a person can identify a range of items they would like as gifts and those planning to give a gift can view the requested items. Such registries are often used by those planning a wedding or throwing a baby shower. These websites often have the added benefit of permitting the gift-buyer to anonymously mark a particular item as purchased to ensure the recipient does not receive duplicate gifts. Many stores such as Target, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, etc. offer gift registry systems and services. Other websites provide gift registries independently as well, such as familygiftregistry.net.
While these approaches have been relatively effective in assisting gift-givers in coming up with good gift ideas, the approaches taken by these websites do not assist the users in actually finding the gifts, for example when the user is out shopping. Thus, there remains a need in the art for a system that assists its users in actually locating gift items they are searching for.
The use of geo-location technology could improve customers' access to information about nearby locations selling items they are seeking. In addition, notification alerts could benefit both merchants and consumers in reminding the users of upcoming gift-giving events, such as holidays and birthdays. For example, a user might be in a mall for one reason or another and could be alerted that a store in the mall sells an item on a friend's gift list, and that the friend has an upcoming birthday. Such a notification would benefit the user by reminding him or her of the upcoming event and the location of an appropriate gift. It would also benefit the merchants selling the items, as the user might be inspired to make a purchase he or should would not have otherwise. Furthermore, a notification providing information about the same or similar items from other merchants could help shoppers to make more informed buying decisions.
These benefits would improve the gift shopping experience by organizing and locating gifts the user intends on buying with the added benefit of reminding the user of the upcoming gift-giving event.